Learning Blog

Eccentricity with Dr Mark - Blogsoma

2010-12-22T18:28:00.001-08:00

This is the podcast I had found to share when I knew I would be unavailable to produce one myself. Here Dr Mark talks about our expectations of others behaviours. I often find myself confronted with others beliefs in how they expect others to re-act or behave to a situation. This can often be problematic and can cause us to limit or thinking. A solution to a problem may not be talked about simply because we believe we somehow know what others will say. The truth is we only deal/relate to our perception of individuals and the the true individuals themselves. If we really look deep into it we will find people don't really fit into all the boxes we make for them. Like Dr Mark states they oscillate. The irony here is change is the only thing that remains constant. Enjoy

How to Iron a shirt

2010-11-21T18:29:00.000-08:00

The other day I just bought some new dress shirts, so I figured I better learn how to start ironing, here's the video that helped teach me, hope you find it useful as well

How to Iron a Shirt -- powered by eHow.comStep 1: Find the tag on your shirt that indicates what it's made of

Step 2: Plug in the iron and set the dial to the recommended fabric. Some fabrics such as cotton require a high heat setting while others such as nylon require a low heat setting

Step 3: Add water to your iron. Distilled water is often recommend to keep your iron lasting a long life time

Step 4: Iron the collar, inside first and then the outside

Step 5: Iron the cuffs, again inside first and then the outside, be careful around the buttons

Step 6: Iron the sleeves, flattening them first to avoid creases

Step 7: Hang the shirt over the board so that one front panel can be extended flat, Iron from shoulder to shirt tail

Step 8: Rotate the shirt and continue along the back until your reach the other panel.

On The Skills of Learning

2010-11-09T16:01:00.001-08:00

There are several, implicit, principles which are of extreme importance to individual learning. I cannot speak for all people and in fact can only speak of myself. It is through these principles that I believe humans can evolve to higher levels of understanding and reasoning.

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Fixing Ubuntu Notifications

2010-11-08T18:13:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite features of the Ubuntu (Linux) Operating system is the notify-send (also known as NotifyOSD). However in Ubuntu 9.04 and greater the notification window has moved. Here’s how to fix it so it works like earlier versions.

Read more: http://computersight.com/software/fix-notifications-on-ubuntu-10-04-lucid-lynx/#ixzz14kOkCOnn

That'll learn ya - The Open University

2010-08-05T02:01:00.001-07:00

Imagine if you could take any university course online..and for free.

Not possible you say? My imagination?

Open Learn systems provide free courses and tutorials on a wide variety of subjects.

Here's one you can check out for yourself. Happy learning.

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How Use Outlook and Sharepoint Meeting Workspaces Together

2010-07-30T10:35:00.001-07:00

Often times, Microsoft gives multiple ways of accomplishing a task. In the early days of computing this was quite an "innovative" idea. Old DOS (TTY) software was plain text with a menu, and to accomplish a process required a certain precise set of steps.

Today, we no longer live in a "menu driven" world, this has it's benefits and it's liabilities and Microsoft Office / Sharepoint integration is no exception to this rule.

This tutorial is designed for people who use Microsoft Office and Microsoft Sharepoint and who want to make the most of a "Meeting Workspace"

Micorosoft Outlook Meeting Workspaces and Sharepoint

2010-07-30T04:09:00.000-07:00

This tutorial is designed for people who use Microsoft Office and Microsoft Sharepoint and who want to make the most of a "Meeting Workspace"

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How to use IMAPSYNC with Yahoo IMAP

2010-07-18T14:09:00.000-07:00

It took me quite a while to get this all worked out. So once i figured it out I figured I should document it for prosperities sake.

IMAPSYNC is a cool tool that let's you sync folders between 2 IMAP style mailboxes. If you use Ubuntu (and why don't you?). You can get it from apt-get with this command

sudo apt-get install imapsync

The syntax is fairly straight forward, until you want to sync with a "Yahoo" IMAP server, because the Yahoo server has a few 'tricks'.

So to make it easy just grab a copy of this perl script

BWebCentral - imapsync-yahoo

Which will allow you to select the imap yahoo server correctly

Technical Details:

The servers for syncing with Yahoo are

1) imap.mail.yahoo.com - For standard unencpted imap
2) imap-sll.mail.yahoo.com - For SSL Encrypted imap

How it Works:

The orginal imapsync, sends the login command as "Login". For strange reasons yahoo will not authentice with "Login". Instead you have to use "login" or "LOGON". So a simple change to remove the uppercase "L" fixes this

Yahoo IMAP requires a secret command to be sent at the start of the session, otherwise it will not authenticate you.

This command is "ID ("GUID" "1")". Thanks to

http://ameir.net/blog/archives/43-Yahoo!-Mail-IMAP-Proxy.html http://ameir.net/blog/archives/43-Yahoo!-Mail-IMAP-Proxy.html for explaining how this works

Have fun syncing your imap folders

Teaching Kids to program

2010-05-21T10:35:00.001-07:00

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts Steve Gibson/Leo Laborte on Security Now! In this episode (SN208) Steve relates a story about his childhood and the unexpected consequences of 'tinkering' around. There was a brief mention of alice.org a site that encourges kids to learn about computing using some pretty neat tools.

Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience.

Increase Your Metabolism - wikiHow

2010-05-14T10:21:00.000-07:00

How to Increase Your Metabolism

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

If you're trying to lose weight, increasing your metabolic rate can enable you to lose more weight without cutting more calories. The commercialism surrounding "metabolism-enhancing products" has made it difficult to separate fact from fiction (or advertising), but you can find a few research-based suggestions here.

Steps

Understand what metabolism is. In the simplest terms, metabolic rate is the rate at which your body burns calories. Very few people have a fast metabolism, and overweight individuals generally have slow metabolisms.[1] However, a faster metabolism will enable you to lose more weight than your friend, even if you both have the same activity level, diet, and weight.
Determine what is influencing your metabolism. There are some factors that you can control and change, and some factors that you can't.
- Age - Metabolic rate decreases five percent per decade after age 40.[2]
- Gender - Men generally burn calories more quickly than women because they have more muscle tissue.[2]
- Heredity - You can inherit your metabolic rate from previous generations.[2]
- Thyroid disorder - Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid gland) and hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid gland) can slow down or speed up metabolism, but only 3% and .3% of the population have hypo- and hyperthyroidism respectively.[3]
Calculate your resting metabolic rate (RMR). RMR is often used interchangeably with basal metabolic rate (BMR). Although they are slightly different, estimating either is sufficient for the purpose of losing weight. To calculate your RMR, use the Mifflin-St Jeor equation (which is more reliable than the Harris-Benedict equation[4]). There are also calculators online that can do this for you:
- RMR = 9.99w + 6.25s - 4.92a + 166g-161
  - w = weight in kilograms; if you know your weight in pounds, divide by 2.2 to get your weight in kilograms
  - s = height in centimeters; if you know your height in inches, multiply by 2.54 to get your height in centimeters
  - a = age in years
  - g = gender = 1 for males, 0 for females
Adjust your diet accordingly. Your RMR will tell you how many calories you need to maintain your body at rest. Your daily consumption to maintain your weight should be:[5]
- RMR x 1.15
  - E.g. RMR = 2000, so the maintenance intake is 2000 x 1.15 = 2300
- To lose weight safely, do not exceed your maintenance intake or have a caloric intake lower than your calculated RMR.
- Count calories by recording what you eat and looking up how many calories each food item contains (either on the food packaging or in tables provided in books or online).
Eat small, frequent meals. Extending the time between meals makes your body go into "starvation mode," which decreases your metabolism as a means to conserve energy and prevent starvation. Skipping meals does not help you cut calories or lose weight; in fact, people generally eat less overall when they eat small, frequent meals. In addition to having four to six small meals per day[6], eating healthy snacks will also increase metabolism.[2]
Drink iced water. As with food, depriving your body of water can encourage it to "hoard" rather than "burn". When your drink ice cold water, your body burns calories warming it to body temperature. More than ninety percent of the chemical reactions in your body occur in water, so make sure you drink an appropriate amount of water.
Boost metabolism temporarily with aerobic exercise. Different activities burn different quantities of calories, but the important thing is to raise your heart rate and sustain the activity for approximately thirty minutes.
Boost metabolism in the long run with weight training. Muscle burns more calories than fat does (73 more calories per kilogram per day, to be exact)[2] so the more muscle you build, the higher your resting metabolic rate (RMR) will be. Every muscle cell that you gain is like a little factory that constantly burns calories for you, even while you sleep, and revs up when you exercise. This is the only way to increase RMR, which accounts for 60 to 70 percent of the calories you burn daily.[7]

Video

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Tips

There are no "fat-burning" foods. You might've heard that certain foods (e.g. celery and grapefruit) increase metabolic rate, but it's just a myth.[6] While some foods and drinks such as red peppers and green tea have been studied for their potential metabolic rate increasing properties, there is no conclusive evidence that whatever influence they have on metabolism is significant enough to result in weight loss.[2] However, it has been proven that all foods do have what is called the thermic effect. Foods with protein have a 30% protein effect, and are the most thermal of all foods. So that means if you eat a 100 calorie portion of meat, 30 calories from the food are required to break down the fibers in the protein and to properly digest it. Foods with higher amounts of fiber also have a high thermic effect. This is why people who eat 40% protein 40% carbohydrate and 20% mainly monounsaturated fat diets do very well, especially if they are carbohydrate sensitive and/or endomorphs.
Some sugar substitutes may adversely affect metabolism and weight loss.[8]
Very low-carb diets are said to burn more calories because the body expends energy changing fats and proteins into glucose. Glucose provides the energy for your body via a system of chemical reactions called the "krebs-cycle" or "tricarboxylic acid cycle."
Unless you are careful to choose whole foods naturally rich in vitamins, the low-carb approach may lead to vitamin deficiency. Some sources claim carbohydrates are necessary for absorption of vitamins. However, it is likely even standard low-carb diets provide enough, as some traditional food cultures like that of the Inuit are low in carbohydrates and do not result in deficiencies. Just to be safe, you may want to invest in supplements, though beware: many formulations are poorly absorbed under the best of conditions. Include omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, by eating at least 2-3 portions of fish a week, or if you dislike fish take fish oil supplements. Drink eight 8-oz. glasses of non-carbonated water (including green tea, tea and coffee) per day.
Be careful with dairy products if you are following the Atkins diet. Milk and products made with milk contain lactose, a carbohydrate. Yogurt has natural milk sugars in addition to fruit and sweeteners such as sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup. Consider getting your calcium from cheese. Some cheeses may have nearly zero carbohydrates. Avoid low-fat dairy products. Whole milk has 11 carbs[9]; skimmed milk has 12.3 carbs.[10] Whole milk also provides the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA and is the most significant food source of CLA,[11][12] a heart-healthy fat that may help increase your metabolism, lose more fat, and build more muscle. [11] Short- and medium-chain fatty acids (especially those in coconut oil) have long been promoted for weight loss and can easily be burned for energy. In a nine-year study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, whole milk and cheese helped prevent weight gain in women who had one or more servings a day while low-fat milk did not.[13] Low-fat yogurt or low-fat ice cream may have more sugar to compensate for the loss of taste. Soy products can also be an excellent substitute for dairy while you are on the Atkins diet. Plain soy milk has seven net carbs and one gram of fiber.[14]
Always consult a dietitian or doctor before making a major change in your diet and exercise routine.

Warnings

Avoid smoking as a weight-loss method. While nicotine is a metabolism booster and appetite suppressant, the health hazards far outweigh any benefits.
Expect your metabolism to slow down as you lose weight. The more weight your body is carrying, the more calories your body has to burn in order to sustain itself, even at rest. When you begin restricting your calorie intake, you'll lose weight relatively easily because your body's high caloric needs are not being met. But after you begin to shed the weight, the body has less mass to carry and thus needs fewer calories. In order to continue losing weight, you will have to restrict your caloric intake even further in order to maintain a difference between what your body needs and what you are providing.[2] Let's go through a hypothetical example:
- You are 200 lbs and your body needs 2500 calories a day to sustain itself.
- You cut down your caloric intake to 2000 calories.
- You lose 25 lbs. Now your body only needs 2250 calories to sustain itself because it's carrying less weight.
- If you continue with your 2000 calorie per day diet (the diet that helped you lose the first 25 lbs) you will still be losing, but at half the speed. In order to maintain a steady weight loss you will need to reduce your caloric intake further. However, it is at the utmost importance you do not try to consume fewer calories than your RMR!
- Another possible problem: If you continue with your 2000 calorie per day diet (the diet that helped you lose the first 25 lbs) you may actually gain weight back because of varying levels of exercise. Let's say you lose 50 lbs. on your 2000 calorie diet. Your sustaining calories might be 1800. You're actually consuming enough calories to gain weight, but how would that happen if you had stayed on your diet? This can happen when your exercise has burned through many calories. If you slowed on exercise at this point you would actually gain weight again. The point here is to recheck your RMR when you lose weight and compare it to your consumption.
Don't overdo your diet or exercise program. Losing more than a pound a week can be detrimental to your health. As mentioned above, check with a physician or a nutritionist to determine what would be considered appropriate weight loss for your level of fitness before you start a new exercise or diet plan.
If you are pregnant or nursing, your caloric needs are increased. Speak to your doctor or midwife before restricting your diet or any specific food group.

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

↑ Slow Metabolism: Is It to Blame for Weight Gain?

↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/guide/make-most-your-metabolism

↑ Thyroid Pathology. Auburn University. 2002. Pages 5 and 16

↑ David Frankenfield, Lori Roth-Yousey, and Charlene Compher. May 2005. Comparison of Predictive Equations for Resting Metabolic Rate in Healthy Nonobese and Obese Adults: A Systematic Review. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 105(5):775-789

↑ Sharon A. Plowman and Denise L. Smith. Exercise Physiology for Health, Fitness, and Performance. Page 236

↑ 6.0 6.1 http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/rev-up-your-metabolism

↑ Boost Your Metabolism

↑ Diets. The Merck Manual

↑ Whole Milk at CalorieKing

↑ Skimmed Milk at CalorieKing

↑ 11.0 11.1 http://www.nationaldairycouncil.org/NationalDairyCouncil/Nutrition/Products/milkPage4.htm

↑ R.C. Khanal and K.C. Olson. 2004. Factors Affecting Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) Content in Milk, Meat, and Egg: A Review. Pakistan Journal of Nutrition 3 (2): 82-98

↑ Magdalena Rosell, Niclas N. Håkansson, and Alicja Wolk. December 2006. Association between Dairy Food Consumption and Weight Change over 9 y in 19 352 Perimenopausal Women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 84(6): 1481-1488

↑ Plain Soy Milk at CalorieKing

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Increase Your Metabolism. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How to send SMS through phone modem (AT Commands)

2009-08-05T04:43:00.000-07:00

In general, there are two ways to send SMS messages from a computer / PC to a mobile phone:

Connect a mobile phone or GSM/GPRS modem to a computer / PC. Then use the computer / PC and AT commands to instruct the mobile phone or GSM/GPRS modem to send SMS messages.

Connect the computer / PC to the SMS center (SMSC) or SMS gateway of a wireless carrier or SMS service provider. Then send SMS messages using a protocol / interface supported by the SMSC or SMS gateway.

Read More...

How to Embed Videos on Google Sites

2009-07-30T20:09:00.000-07:00

If you use Google Sites, you may have no doubt noticed that they have seriously restricted the amount of javascript (and embed codes) that can be used.

However, have no fear, you can still embed your Revver, Blip.TV, Meta Cafe, and other video services with a simple Video Gadget

The "Smart Video" Gadget (http://www.bwebcentral.com/vidcatcher.xml) allows you to simply enter the URL from pretty much and video site, and have the video automatically inserted into your Google Sites Page!

To use it just use "Insert...Google Gadget, then choose "By URL" and copy and paste the url above"

Then from the properties choose a reasonable width and height (like 480 x 400 for example), and enter the url from your address bar. and violoa!

Hope you enjoy it!

Gadget Page: http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bwebcentral.com%2Fvidcatcher.xml

How-to ZAP Telemarketers

2009-07-22T05:18:00.000-07:00

If you're like me you're sick and tired of those annoying telemarkters, Perhaps you've heard of a neat little tool called the TeleZapper.

The TeleZapper promises to help reduce or eliminate your telemarketing calls, you install it in serial with your phone. When you recieve a call, the TeleZapper waits for you to pick up the phone, and then sends this tone [telezap.wav]. You may have heard this tone before if you've ever dialed a number that is no longer in service.

The predictive dialing tool upon hearing this tool normally removes your number from its database (Though it doesn't have to)

If you want to try it for yourself, you can download the tone and play it just before your answering machine greeting. Theoretically this should work the same way, when you see a telemarkter call you; just let your answering machine pick up. Of course non telemarkters will hear this tone too, which may be somewhat annoying.

You can also use some free windows software tools which will do a similar thing.

Related Links:

How to get even with Telemarkters (http://video.bwebcentral.com/?FeedID=41)
Wikipedia Predictive Dialers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictive_dialer)
Canada Do Not Call List (http://blog.bwebcentral.com/945)
Buy the Telezapper

Technical Details:

At my house, I use a linux (Ubuntu) OS. I use the package called "vgetty" to monitor my incoming phone calls. When the little script I wrote detects a possible telemarkter (by caller id). It sends the disconnected tone, to the autodialer.

In theory, this should cause these companies to remove my name from the list (assuming they respect the tone, and that I generated the tone correctly).

I will be monitoring this system over the next few months to see if it actually reduces any calls (are the call systems removing me from their lists?)

Even more technical "geeky" details:

My voice modem is a TOPIC (FM56PCI-TP) modem. This modem does not really work well with vgetty. It detects it as a multitech modem. The Multitech modem does not use the same compression mode as my modem, and although it plays the sound there is a large screetcy noise.

It took me quite a while to figure out how to fix this. In the end, it was necessary to force the vgetty (vm) software to detect my modem as a standard V253 modem. However, my modem uses a different flow control AT command and a different command to set the compression rate.

To fix this I had to edit the vgetty/mgetty source specifically the voicelib/V253modem.cc file and replace the commands.

If you want to play around with this.

Here is the "diff" of the changes I made V253modem.diff
Here is the perl script I use to play the greeting
Here is the zap (wave) file (Remember: you have to convert it to an rmdfile). To do this you can follow thie instructions here:

Telezap Wav file courtsy of: http://www.k3pgp.org/telezap.htm

Understanding Wiki's and Wikipedia

2009-07-18T01:14:00.001-07:00

What is a Wiki?

In general, a Wiki is web software, that allows people to easily create, and edit webpages by multiple people (or volenteers) in a collaborative way. The word Wiki itself, comes from the Hawaiian word meaning "fast". If you run a Wiki software on your website, it can be a very fast way to create and edit pages to share with others.

Why are Wiki's Useful?

The full power of a Wiki can be seen by one of the post popular Wiki's called Wikipedia. This free encyclopedia has grown to well over 2 million articles on a wide variety of subjects. Perhaps you remember, when you were young, and you parents had that enyclopedia set of 20 or so books on a bookshelf. Or perhaps, you went to the library to research information for you school project? Maybe you were even one of the lucky ones who had a CD-ROM with the encylopedia on it.

Now, thanks to the power of the internet and Wiki's. You can research all kinds of information quickly and easily.

What are Wiki Problems?

For the most part, Wiki's can be edited by anyone, anonmously. Depending upon the wiki quality guidelines and how well they are enforced, can greatly affect the accuracy of the information presented. Wikipedia is very good at enfocing quality guidelines and a new scan tool (see link below) allows you to somewhat see what persons/companies are editing Wikipedia entries, possibly in a biased way. So when researching information from a Wiki (or even the internet in general) it is important to have several sources to backup your findings.

From the link below you can see a list of Wikipedia edits from the IP Address block 198.81.129.0-255. A quick Whois on this IP Address block reveals these IP addresses are owned by, and administrated from the Central Intelligence Agency. In reality, this only tells us that there are people using computers on the CIA network making some very inteesting wiki edits We can only surmise the specific reasons why. It could just be employees having fun, or part of a some bigger conspiracy theory. Either way, it's kinda of interesting don't you think?

Learning about Father's Day

2009-07-17T01:14:00.001-07:00

Who came up with fathers day? Her name was Sonora Louise Smart Dodd and she lived in Spokane, Washington. Sonora was the oldest of six children raised by their father, William Jackson Smart, when their mother died during childbirth. Sonora honored and revered her father, and while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909, she determined there should also be a day to honor fathers. Find out more at the link below:

Learning Blog: Learning Gmails Web Clips

2009-07-16T01:14:00.001-07:00

From the page:

GMail has recently introduced a new service called "Web Clips". With web clips you can know get your own favorite messages shown at the top of the Gmail screen. You know the one that I mean? Where the advertisements usually are?

Learning Blog: Basics of Microsoft Project

2009-07-14T01:14:00.001-07:00

Microsoft Project can be a great tool for keeping your projects on time and on budget but only once you get the hang of it.

In this video we learn about "task types", How Microsoft Project handles tasks that are fixed in either duration, work, or units, and what this all means to you - the project manager

Understanding Phishing in Plain English

2009-07-13T01:14:00.001-07:00

The folks over at commoncraft have brought us another of their awesome videos, helping the world understand things.

This one teaches us what Phising means, and why it is a dangerous thing to watch out for.

Enjoy

Super FAQ (OPML FAQ) - Biz Ideas

2009-07-11T01:14:00.001-07:00

What it is:

FAQ's or (Frequenty Asked Questions) are everywhere in our world today on every topic imaginable. Many of these orginally started from usenet newgroups. People would ask the same questions over and over again, and nice "volenenteers" would take the time to document these frequenlty asked questions and write a post to refer to them.

Over the years, FAQ's have become as much (or more) of a marketing tool. Easily introducting people to your product by "making up" frequently asked questions that you think people might ask.

How to measure Thermal Conductivty of a Material

2009-07-10T01:14:00.001-07:00

In my old life, I worked for Mathis Instruments.

Whenever, I told someone where I worked, they often commented that they heard of it but were not sure what they did.

Well today, the product is owned by C-Therm, this video does an excellent job of explaining how it all works.

How to make T-Shirt Transfers under Ubuntu Linux

2009-06-14T04:19:00.001-07:00

The other day, I was wanting to make some custom T-Shirts. A while back my wife bought me T-Shirt transfer inkjet labels as a Christmas Present.

The original T-Shirt I made was on Windows, it was for my oldest daughter, it turned out quite well, but that was a while back before I switched over the Ubuntu.

I was a little disappointed, because I searched and searched but could not found a "T-Shirt" or "Mirror" setting to put my design on the labels.

Well, I quickly found an easy work around, Here's how to do it

1) Create your T-Shirt Design using your favorite OpenOffice product (eg: OpenOffice Writer)

2) Choose the Option to "Export" your work as a "PDF File" (for best results save the PDF with lossless compression

3) Open The GIMP image Editor

4) Open your PDF file in GIMP (Yes, GIMP opens PDF files, I was surprised myself)

5) From The GIMP under Tools..>Transform Tools -> Flip

6) Click on your open image to Flip the Image

..And Viola you have a reversed image you can print on your T-Shirt

Hope you enjoy!

Go Geocaching - wikiHow

2009-05-24T16:27:00.000-07:00

How to Go Geocaching

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Geocaching is an increasingly popular, inclusive, fun and healthy pastime for individuals of all ages. It is also great for groups like families, friends, classes and youth groups working as teams. The core of the sport consists of using a handheld GPS receiver unit to guide you to a destination, where a hidden container (or "cache") is stored. Once found, you log your visit in an included logbook, and optionally trade one of the many contained "goodies" for one of your own. This wikiHow will guide you through the basics of the sport. On your mark, get set, go!

Steps

Acquire a GPS receiver either by purchasing, renting or borrowing one. Certain Garmin models have the capability of "paperless geocaching" described in the Tips section, below.
Create an account with one of the caching sites listed below. Membership is free, although some sites offer "premium" member status that will allow access to additional features. There are caches on several different sites, so explore them and decide which you prefer.
Use the search feature on the website to find a list of caches near you.
Choose a cache which interests you. Record any details or hints on a notepad or by printing the page out.
Create a waypoint in your GPS unit for the cache, using the latitude and longitude coordinates from the cache's webpage.
Bring a small item for trading at the cache. It should be something you are willing to give away, but might be of some interest or value to another person.
Use your GPS unit's "navigate" feature (or equivalent) to produce an arrow on the screen pointing you to the waypoint you have just created.
Using the arrow as a guide, make your way towards the cache.
Once you find the cache, take note of how it has been hidden. You will need to replace it in an identical fashion.
Open the cache and browse the trinkets and goodies within it. Consider if you would like to take anything in exchange for the cache item you have brought along with you. You should always trade something of equal or greater value to keep the sport fair and honest. You are not required to make a trade if you don't want to. Alternatively, you can help "restock" a poorly filled cache by leaving your item and taking nothing.
Find the logbook within the cache. Make a new entry in the book noting the date, time, your caching site username, and a line or two about your journey. Also log what you traded by including what you took and what you left, even if it was nothing.
Close the cache back up securely and hide it in the exact same place and manner in which you found it.
Return home and log back into your chosen caching website. Find your chosen cache once again and use the "Log Your Visit" feature (or equivalent) to record that you found the cache. Include the same kinds of details that you wrote in the cache logbook.

Things You'll Need

An account on a site like geocaching.com or terracaching.org
A Global Positioning System Receiver, also known as a GPSr or simply a GPS unit
A mobile phone and a geocache program such as GeoShrine
A computer with Internet access
A printer for your computer, or simply note paper, to record details of the geocache from the caching site
Cache items for trading
A working pen or pencil for signing the log book or solving puzzles, in case there isn't one in the cache
Proper wear for outdoor conditions
- Insect repellent
- Sunscreen
- Walking/hiking shoes
- Flashlight

Tips

GPS receivers can be purchased at your nearest outdoors/hiking/trail shop, home hardware store, electronics store or department store. You may also wish to check eBay, or the forums on caching sites, for used units. Expect to pay $100-150 for an adequate unit. Expect to pay more for features such as increased position accuracy, easier controls, larger screen, map capabilities, etc. The most popular brands are Garmin and Magellan. There is also a new, just for geocaching, GPS reciever released, called a Geomate.jr. It is very simple and is easy to use, perfect for kids. At a lower cost than most other GPS recievers it is a great way to get in on the fun.

Paperless Geocaching is possible with certain Garmin models (Colorado, Mobile XT, Nuvi, Oregon, Street Pilot, Zumo possibly others, as well). This allows for display of cache info, logs, icons on the GPS screen and optionally play audio alerts when approaching caches collected from the Geocaching website. Regular accounts there are free, but the macro uses the "Pocket Query" feature which requires a premium account ($3 / mo. but can be canceled at any time). Support, feature requests and bug reports can be found in the author's support forum. This is a work in progress, so read all the posts for the latest information. Follow the "Download" link at the bottom of post #27 to download the macro itself and view a complete list of prerequisites.
Be aware of the different variations on the traditional geocache. They offer a variety of experiences depending on what you are in the mood for:
- Multi-caches promise to send you to more than one waypoint prior to you finding the final cache location.
- Microcaches indicate smaller containers, often only large enough for a small log sheet (bring your own pencil). They are often found in places where a larger cache container would be impractical.
- Puzzle caches may require you to solve a puzzle of some kind to obtain the coordinates for the cache.
- Virtual caches have no container at all, but require you to find some information at the location, or take a picture to prove you found it. These are popular in sensitive environmental areas.
- Locationless caches, which are more like a "scavenger hunt", challenge you to find an object or landmark that could be anywhere, and take a picture to prove you found it. (No longer allowed to be listed on geocaching.com.)
- Moving caches begin with the original coordinates of a real location, but when found are moved to another location. The new coordinates are sent to the cache owner and changes are made to the cache page accordingly. (No longer allowed to be listed on geocaching.com.)
When selecting a caching item to bring along for trading, consider that things like marbles, bouncy balls, key chains and batteries are popular trading items for geocaches. If you have a local "dollar store", these items are often perfect. Also, cultural items that cannot be bought easily help enrich the sport and make cache finds more interesting for others (ex: commemorative pins, patches, crafts, etc.)
When you think you have found the cache, make sure it is not actually a letterbox hidden nearby. Letterboxes contain a hand-carved rubber stamp which should not be removed from the letterbox, as well as a logbook. Trade items should never be placed in a letterbox.
The arrow on your GPS can deceive and frustrate you due to a number of main factors:
- A GPS can only deduce the direction you are facing by tracking your position over a period of time. Once you stop moving, it can no longer do this. Therefore, take into account that the arrow will most likely be wrong once you are stopped. Take a half-dozen steps to adjust the arrow accordingly.
- Your current position is as calculated by the GPS is not exact. In short, anything that blocks your view of the sky will reduce the accuracy of your position. Learn how to display your GPS unit's accuracy so that you can factor it into your search. The accuracy of your position can vary widely due to any number of factors, including:
  - Tree cover
  - Power lines
  - Mountains
  - Other people
  - Number of satellites above the horizon at the time of day in your part of the world. Trimble offers a free downloadable tool that allows you to plan when the most satellites are in the sky in your part of the world.
  - Large, flat objects that may cause a satellite signal to reflect off of it, like a large building.
A common mistake by novices and young cachers is to "bee-line" for the cache, ignoring whatever obstacles may lay ahead. Geocaching teaches us the value of planning ones strategy and route. Use your eyes and ears and knowledge of the area to stay on roads, trails, and footpaths for as long as possible, even if this means you may be heading away from the cache for a brief period of time. Even experienced cachers find themselves traveling many miles only to find themselves on the wrong side of a ravine or river.
When your GPS unit guides you to within approximately 10 meters of the cache, you will have to rely less on your GPS and instead rely more and more on your notes and deduction skills. Look around and ask yourself, "Where would I hide a cache?" Remember to look up and down, caches can be on the ground or hanging within reach on a tree.
It is possible to triangulate the position of the cache. From 100 feet away, follow the arrow on your GPS towards the cache. Repeat twice walking from a different directions. Where these three paths meet, hopefully one point, should be the cache location. This technique usually gets you within a step or two of the actual cache so if it is hidden well you know where to concentrate your search. If you choose to hide a cache, you should use this technique to get the best coordinates for your cache.
When you return the cache to its hiding place, remember that the cache must survive wind, rain, temperature and humidity variances, and in some parts of the world, ice, snow, freezing, and thawing. Ensure that it is closed securely and hidden appropriately. Take note of any problems with the cache's condition so that you can report it to the cache owner later (i.e.: if it is wet inside, has a hole in it, will not close properly, etc.)
Minimize environmental impact by sticking to trails for as long as possible, and follow CITO. Cache In, Trash Out simply means that you pick up garbage on the way out to keep geocaching's impact on the environment positive. Often, you will find an official CITO bag inside of a cache, but you should bring along your own plastic bag as well.
Consider using geocaching software programs designed to help a geocacher manage a list of found and unfound caches, find cache locations with street-level and topographical maps, fly-over a target cache location, and record field notes and log entries to later upload to a geocaching website. Most GPS receivers allow geocachers to load a list of caches into a receiver using a data cable and a good software program.
Be sure to log your visit to the cache on the caching website. This may seem like unnecessary administrative work after the fact, but it helps the cache owner keep track of the condition of the cache by monitoring when it was last found, as well as gives you credit for your find. It only takes a minute, and when you start racking up double-digits in finds, you may wish you had logged each and every one.
Don't rely on the location system on a first-generation iPhone, as it's not as accurate as a GPS. New 3G iPhones have full GPS built in and should work as well as any other device.

Entering Coordinates

Be sure to double check the entry of coordinates into your GPS unit. A typo can send you hunting in the wrong direction. Many GPSs offer a link cable to your PC so that you can download the waypoint directly to your GPS unit.
The same position on Earth can be expressed in many very different ways. The two things that affect this are:
- Map Datum: Various world surveys, map systems, and world-shape mathematics express the same position as very different expressions. Geocaching uses the popular WGS84 datum, so ensure that your GPS is configured accordingly. For example purposes, the following locations are all the same point on Earth expressed in only three of the many available datums:
  - WGS84: Used by the NAVSTAR GPS System
  - NAD83: Almost equivalent to the WGS84 Map Datum, but used on newer topographical maps
  - NAD27, or for the continental US, NAD27CONUS, used on older USGS topographical maps
- Coordinate Format: For WGS84, the same coordinate can be expressed in slightly different formats. Ensure that your GPS uses the same format that your geocaching website does. It is helpful to think of this in the same way you might express how much change is in your pocket (ie: one might say that they have $1.35, or 1 dollar, 3 dimes, and 1 nickel). For example, the same position on earth can be expressed as:
  - N 44.659234deg, W 63.326711deg - this is in "degrees" or DD.DDDDDD format since it only contains one number (degrees) each for latitude and longitude
  - N 44deg 39.55404', W 63deg 19.60266' - this is in "degrees, minutes" or DD MM.MMMMM format since it contains degrees and minutes (')
  - N 44deg 39' 33", W 63deg 19' 36" - this is in "degrees, minutes, seconds" or DD MM SS format since it contains degrees, minutes ('), and seconds (")

Trackable Items

Some popular items found in caches are "trackable" items, such as "Travel Bugs (R)", "Traveler Tags" or geocoins. A tracking number on the item is used to log the trackable items journey from cache to cache on a website.
- A Travel Bug is a metal tag engraved with a unique tracking number.
- Traveler Tags can be any item with a tracking number written on it.
- Many Geocoins are also trackable.
Many Trackable items have a particular mission or theme that the owner who created and released the trackable item wishes it to accomplish. For example to be transported across the country to reach another geocacher in another region.
If you take a trackable item, it is your responsibility to help it to accomplish its goal or move it to another cache.

Terms and Expressions

Common acronyms for logbooks and your online log:
- TNLN - Took Nothing, Left Nothing
- TFTH - Thanks For The Hike
- TFTC - Thanks for the Cache
- SL - Signed Logbook.
Muggle - a non-geocaching person which may endanger the cache if they learn about it. You want to make sure that when you bring the cache out into the open, there is nobody around to see you. In addition, re-hide it the same way you found it.

Warnings

Never leave without reading the entire cache description. It often contains specific warnings about terrain, any possible hazards or unsafe areas, and legal issues about which private land to avoid.
Check the weather forecast before you go and pay special attention to the UV index, wind speed & direction, chances of precipitation, and the forecasted low temperature. Dress and plan appropriately with clothing and sunscreen. The most common mistakes by outdoor novices are:
- Wearing Jeans: Jeans are strongly discouraged as they "wick" moisture from the pant legs, take forever to dry, and do not keep you warm.
- Many people underestimate on how muddy (or at least wet) their feet are going to get, so wear a good pair of outdoor hiking boots. A pair of extra socks doesn't take up much space and can go a long way in case your feet get wet.
- Planning for the cold and rain: Remember to protect your extremities first in colder conditions (i.e.: your feet by wearing wool or fleece socks, your hands by bringing a pair of good gloves or mitts, your ears and head by bringing an warm toque). Dressing in layers is best so that you can plan for changing conditions.
- Planning for the sun and UV: Even if it isn't sunny out, UV rays are burning your skin. Geocaching is a lot of fun and 30 minutes of exposure to the sun can feel like 5, so wear a hat and apply sunscreen.
Bring a flashlight regardless of the time of day you are going geocaching. If you are lost in the woods beyond daylight hours, a flashlight will make finding your way (as well as being found) a lot easier.
Bring lots of extra batteries for your GPS, flashlight, and anything else you might be relying on to help you. The small cost is worth preventing getting lost. NiMH rechargable batteries are a cost effective and environmentally friendly option.
You may choose to bring a compass. It not only helps you find the cache by using magnetic bearings, but if your GPS ceases functioning, you will have a backup method to find your way out of the woods.
Learn how to use all the features of the GPS unit properly before venturing out. Many GPS units have a "bread crumb" or "track back" feature which will allow you to retrace your footsteps if you become lost. Familiarize yourself with this feature before venturing out, as it may save your life. In fact, it is a good idea to take your GPS unit's manual with you, just in case you get lost and need to know how to access a certain feature.
Before you leave to go geocaching, tell somebody where you're going and when you expect to be back. It may be helpful to leave a copy of the cache details with them. In case you get lost, this individual will have specific coordinates to help in a search effort.
Once you are forced to leave an area you are familiar with and venture into the woods, create another waypoint. If worse comes to worst and you get disoriented or lost, you can always navigate back to this waypoint.
Make sure to focus on your surrounding area more than your GPS unit. Only periodic checks of your instrumentation are necessary. It is far more important to stay safe and watch where you are going.
Avoid leaving food or potentially harmful items in caches. Broadly, these contain anything that could attract animals (i.e.: food) as well as anything that is not considered child-friendly (i.e.: knives, alcohol, tobacco, weapons, pornography, drugs, etc.). If you see some of these items in a cache, you may remove it, and report it to the cache owner when you return home to log your visit.
It is your responsibility to obey local laws. There is more than one approach to a cache. For example, NO caching site can give you the right to trespass through private land. If you suspect that your course may lead you through somebody's backyard, find an alternate route.
In this era of heightened security you need to consider the environment when you plan your cache placement. For example you should not hide containers near areas or buildings that may be considered terrorist targets. If you cause an unintended bomb scare you could face fines, criminal charges, or will be required to pay restitution for public expenses.

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

Geocaching 101: Caching with Kids A Free Trailmix.Net seminar

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Go Geocaching. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How to submit a form to email

2009-04-04T18:07:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I've noticed various webmaster form threads ; with everyone asking the same question.

Basically, you have a page with a "Contact US" form and when you try hitting submit you are not getting any email messages.

This maybe because the free-space is not doing SMTP, it is turned off, or your email system thinks the message is SPAM.

Whatever, the reason I have put together simple form to email program - FREE for ANYONE

Here's how to use it:

Step #1) Go Here and Register http://www.bwebcentral.com/utils/form-email-setup.php

**Be sure to put the exact page that your contact us page will be called in the "Website Form" field. Otherwise it will not work

Step #2) After sign-up you will get an email with a secret key

Step #3) Add the code below to your contact us page (remember to replace YOUR-SECRET-KEY below with the secret key you get in the email

HTML Code

HTML Code:

<H1>Contact Us</H1>

<P>

Please fill out the form below to send us a message.

</P>

<TABLE BORDER=0>
<FORM ACTION="http://www.bwebcentral.com/utils/auto-form.php" METHOD="POST">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" Name="SecretKey" Value="YOUR-SECRET-KEY">

<TD>Your Name: </TD><TD ALIGN="LEFT"><INPUT TYPE="text" Name="YourName" Value=""></TD><TR>

<TD>Your Email:</TD><TD ALIGN="LEFT"> <INPUT TYPE="text" Name="FromAddr"></INPUT></TD><TR>

<TD COLSPAN="2">

<B>Your Message</B><BR>
<TEXTAREA ROWS=5 COLS=80 Name="TheBody"></TEXTAREA>
<P><BR>
Verification:<INPUT Type="Text" Name="VerifyCode" Size=8>

<script><!--
a = Math.random();
document.writeln("<IMG Width='100' Height='100' SRC=\"http://www.bwebcentral.com/randimg.php?var=sss&dummy=" + a + "\">");
--></script>
Type the letters you see in the box to the left. <A TARGET="_new" 
HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha">What's This?</A>

<P ALIGN="CENTER">
<INPUT TYPE="Submit" Name="Submit" Value="Send Message">
</P>
</FORM>

That's it, go to the page you just created and try to submit a message!
All of the items contained on the form will be emailed to the page you setup when you registered. You can have multiple form pages, but each will require a separate registration and thus a separate secret key

You can add as many form fields as you like, but you cannot remove the CAPTCHA (Spam prevention tool)

If you want an autoresponse sent when submit submits the form you will have to create a text file on your server containing the autoresponding text you would like to have emailed back to your users.

Hope you enjoy it !

How to Core a Pineapple

2009-03-18T10:41:00.000-07:00

Pineapple Cutting 101

How to Cut a Pineapple

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Pineapples (Ananas comosus) are best eaten fresh. It is easy to slice a pineapple at home rather than resorting to the pre-cut variety available in a can with additives and preservatives. Get fresh with a pineapple!

Steps

Choose a good quality pineapple. Use your sense of smell - the pineapple must smell sweet and fresh. If you detect an odor that suggests fermentation or there is no sweetness present, skip that pineapple. Also avoid pineapples that are bruised or mushy to the touch.
Place the pineapple on its side.
Cut the crown and the stem off of the pineapple.
Stand the pineapple up on one end. Slice the skin off from top to bottom. Leave as much flesh as possible remaining on the pineapple.
Remove the eye spots. Eye spots are on a diagonal on the pineapple. Cut a V-shaped groove along the diagonal line and remove a set of eye spots each cut. The remaining flesh is ready for cutting now.
Cut the pineapple. The type of cut depends on how you want to use the pineapple. You can choose from these cuts:
- Cut pineapple circles. Simply cut the pineapple circle slices in a width suited for your needs. Core each circle slice after cutting.
- Cut the pineapple into halves, then quarters for cubes or wedges. For each quarter, cut off the core that will be on its edge.
Add the pineapple to your recipe or meal. It is delicious eaten as it is with nothing added or you can add yogurt, whipped cream, crushed nuts etc. Or use it to make pineapple upside-down cake, as an addition to a meat dish or as a decoration atop a dessert.

Tips

The white fibrous matter in the core tastes bitter but some people like this taste. It is safe to eat, and healthy (it contains antioxidants), but it may not be to your texture (tough), although the taste is mild and quite appealing.
Pineapples are low in fat and cholesterol free. They contain vitamin C and trace essential nutrients. And they are brimful of great fiber.

Warnings

Like always, exercise caution around knives.

Related wikiHows

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Cut a Pineapple. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Learning Drupal - By the Drop

2009-03-13T12:19:00.000-07:00

Learn By The Drop has created some excellent tutorials for users getting started learning Drupal CMS

You can see more tutorials at:

http://learnbythedrop.com/gettingstarted

Installing Drupal on Godaddy.com

2009-03-12T06:11:00.000-07:00

Powerfull CMS gives us an excellent video tutorial for Drupal installations on godaddy

Related Reading:

Drupal Install

http://drupal.org/node/231371

How-To File Change Permissions chmod and ftp

2009-03-11T04:45:00.000-07:00

Stadius.com gives a great tutorial on setting file permissions on Windows system.

In the UNIX/LINUX world we can just use 'chmod' to change the file permissions on a file with the standard ftp client.

Unfortunality, this is not so easy in the Windows world, for some reason M$ did not see it 'fit' to include CHMOD as a valid command in their ftp client.

But here are some free clients to help you get around that problem.

Read More...

Related Reading:

WinSCP Portable - Script Commands

How to Prepare for Daylight Savings Time

2009-03-07T10:34:00.000-08:00

by Heidi Braley

Every year, Daylight Savings Time rolls around causing schedules to be thrown off. Our whole society creaks and groans with the simple change of a one hour shift. Here are a few tips on how to ease into it.

How to Embed Audio on Wordpress.com

2009-03-04T04:13:00.000-08:00

Ever have an audio file that you want to embed in a wordpress.org site?

Whether your just starting to blog, and/or podcast, you will eventually want to have one of those little audio players on your site, to allow people to listen easily.

One of the easy ways to do this is to use a little program called the "Pickle Player". The pickle player is a nice little app that alllows you to paste the location of your mp3 file and it gives you back some code to embed in your blog.

However, if you're on a wordpress.com blog this won't work. Wordpress does not allow the <embed> tag in posts, so instead you have to use a special wordpress code/tag as follows

[audio http://www.archive.org/download/BradDetcheveryAboutBWebCentral.com/aboutbwebcentral.mp3]

This will produce the following player

Ref: http://support.wordpress.com/audio/

Understanding Phishing in Plain English

2009-03-01T06:17:00.000-08:00

Basics of Microsoft Project

2009-02-09T18:09:00.000-08:00

Checking and Repariing MySQL Database

2008-10-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

The tech republic has an excellent article on how to repair tables in your MySQL database.

Data corruption is every DBA's worst nightmare. There's nothing quite like the experience of coming to work one morning, finding that four years of hard-earned corporate data has just been corrupted, and the entire organization is looking to you to recover it. It sure beats coffee for a wake-up call.

How to copy your Ubuntu installation to another drive

2008-10-10T02:59:00.000-07:00

I recently decided to buy a new hard drive, so I was glad to come across this article from ArsGeek which helped explain how to easily move my existing customize Ubuntu installation to the new hard disk simply

http://www.arsgeek.com/2008/01/22/how-to-clone-your-bootable-ubuntu-install-to-another-drive/

What can I do if I forgot my Administrator password?

2008-10-03T15:59:00.000-07:00

It happens to the best of us. I've served as a network administrator for over 10 years. So I'm quite familar with users telling me they forgot their password and they can't access his or her computer.

Worse yet what if it's the Administrator password that is locked? How do you gain access to such a machine.

Have no fear; Windows security isn't as "tough" as it looks, there are a few great tools out there that allow you to reset a lost administrator password.

If you've tried everything else, I recommend trying the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor by offline NT Password & Registry Editor.

It works by creating a boot CD that you boot into a special version of linux. The linux can mount your Windows drive and optionally reset the Administrator password. I recommend only choosing the option to 'blank the password'.

Steps:

1) Download the ZIP file here http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/cd080526.zip

2) Unzip the file, inside it you will find a file .ISO. This is the CD Boot image

3) Use your favorite CD Burning program to burn a CD from the ISO

4) Boot the CD and following the instructions

5) Reboot your computer when prompted.

When you restart your system may do a check of your disk; this is normal.

After your system is restarted, you can enter the username Administrator with a blank password and viola! you're in

Warnings:

Do not try this if you are using an encrypted (EFS) disk. You may loose all your data!
Only use this utility as a last resort, as it still might cause you problems and loose data if it doesn't work correctly and it has NO WARRANTIES
If you or your system administrator has a policy that dis-allows blank passwords, then it still might not work!

Good Luck!

What's your learning style?

2008-09-30T14:19:00.001-07:00

Learning styles refer to the ways you prefer to approach new information. Each of us learns and processes information in our own special ways, though we share some learning patterns, preferences, and approaches. Knowing your own style also can help you to realize that other people may approach the same situation in a different way from your own.

Take a few minutes to complete the following questionnaire to assess your preferred learning style. Begin by reading the words in the left-hand column. Of the three responses to the right, circle the one that best characterizes you, answering as honestly as possible with the description that applies to you right now. Count the number of circled items and write your total at the bottom of each column. The questions you prefer will offer insight into how you learn.

Read More...

Learning Gmail's Web Clips

2008-09-20T12:45:00.000-07:00

GMail has recently introduced a new service called "Web Clips". With web clips you can know get your own favorite messages shown at the top of the Gmail screen. You know the one that I mean? Where the advertisements usually are?

Watch this video to see how it works.

How to set file permissions in Windows XP/2003

2008-09-15T10:33:00.000-07:00

I was recently asked a question on how to set file persmissions and I came cross this article on ehow.com -> http://www.ehow.com/how_2383435_set-permissions-windows-xp.html

Setting file permissions is a great way to keep your documents secure, especially in a small business, but it can sometimes be tricky to figure out, so I created this video to help explain things and put it all together.

How to setup your own microblog with Laconica

2008-09-15T06:23:00.000-07:00

Leslie Michael Orchard over at 0xDECAFBAD created a great article entitled Getting Laconica up and running"

In this article, he provides excellent set of instructions for creating your own 'twitter like' microblog.

I have setup my own following his instructions, and you can now follow me at laconica.bwebcentral.com

Why would you want to do this? - Well the main reason is because as twitter grows and grows it is continuing to run into scalability problems. It is being used for a lot of reasons, and is taking a lot of resources.

Laconica solves this problem by creating a distributed set of microblogs. You can still follow others (just like on twitter), but you can follow people on their own microblog.

So adding to Leslie's idea, I have packaged his instructions in a set of 3 scripts which you can run on your Ubuntu box and get up an running in just moments.

Download the tarball of the scripts here

Script #1 -> Installs the main laconica program on your box, and ensures all the necessary pre-resiquotes are installed

Script #2 -> Installs the extras needed for OpenID, and XMPPHP

Script #3 -> Sets up the mysql database for storing information

You will still have to modify the config.php as noted on Leslie's blog, and tweak it a bit to get it working. I have not double tested these scripts, so please use them at your own risk, but they should give you a bit of a headstart!

Enjoy !

Cracking MD5 hashes

2008-08-29T04:57:00.000-07:00

I want to be clear, that I am not advocating trying to crack and steal information,

Gr33nN1nj4 has an interesting article on using a dictionary based attack to find out encrypted MD5 information.

Background: MD5 is a one-way encryption algorithim (also known as a Cryptographic hash). These hashes are used by many software/web based programs to securely store confidential information such as passwords.

You may have often heard that it is very important when choosing a password, to choose one that contains lots of alpha-numeric characters, including special characters like "@ . !" etc. This tutorial helps to explain why if you pick a password like "password" it can be hacked literally in seconds !

Read More...

How to send a trackback with blogger

2008-08-27T08:03:00.000-07:00

If your a blogger and you use the blogger platform from google you may have noticed, it is not easy to send trackbacks with blogger.

Trackbacks are a common way to link back to other blogs which you want to comment on.

I found this article from Any Beard's blog which is a great how-to for doing this if you use greasemonkey and firefox.

Install Greasemonkey

Lots of people might have it already and I know 65% of my readers use Firefox. If you don't have it already, it is extremely useful, and there are thousands of user scripts for it.

Install Blogger Trackback

After you have Greasemonkey installed, install the appropriate script - the developer says both can co-exist, but I haven't tested that.

If you are using New Blogger, you can use this trackback script for greasemonkey.

If you are using old blogger, there is an older script available

How to create your own reddit on your own domain

2008-08-26T15:33:00.000-07:00

The social news and bookmarking site Reddit recently announced the ability to create fully customizable sub-reddits . In addition to creating your own look and feel you can also point them your own domain.

How it works:

Step #1) Create your Reddit

First Create your own Reddit by filling out the form

In this step you are asked to pick a name for this reddit. This is important and will be needed later

Here's one I created:

Step #2) Customize your Layout

After saving your site (the reddit name must be unique), you can customize the CSS and image logo from the site you are taken to. Normally this will be something like

http://www.reddit.com/r/philosophycorner/

Step #3) Add a CNAME (alias) record to your domain

The specific steps on this will depend on how your DNS is hosted, but basically you will add a CNAME type record to your DNS's nameserver. The new record will contain the name you defined for "domain:" when you created the site. In this example it was philosophy.bwebcentral.com

For the points to portion of the record you use the name you defined for the reddit (in this case philosophycorner and reddit.com -> http://philosophycorner.reddit.com

This is important, you cannot redirect to www.reddit.com/r/philosophycorner! It must be [subreddit].reddit.com

It can take up to 24 hours for your DNS settings to be propagated, once they are you can access the site

Congrats Your Done!

One additional tip!

The "bookmarklets" button on the bottom of your main page is the standard bookmarklets for submitting to reddit. However, you can send users to your own bookmarklets page at

[sub-reddit].bwebcentral.com/bookmarklets
http://philosophy.bwebcentral.com/bookmarklets

The Cons [edit: Aug 27]

As I've been playing around with this, I've noticed that the way reddit is redirecting to your blog isn't really "web/search engine friendly". When they detect your web address request to their site, they are generating a frameset to mask the page. So should a search engine visit the page they will see the real content they will just see the frame pointing to the actual page on reddit.

I think it would have been smarter if reddit, simply used somethign like a ReWriteRule to softly redirect and actually send the content to the browser instead of just a frame. Although it seems like reddit might be using IIS 3.0 (that can't be right can it?) to serve the pages.

[Submitted Feature Request (135)]

Hope this tutorial has helped you! If so, Please grab my bookmarklet and start submitting your philosophy entries to my reddit!